Last Easter - Orange Tree Theatre

[joem]

An interesting play by Bryony Lavery from the revived season at the Orange Tree in Richmond.

An ensemble piece on how a group of friends deals with the cancer diagnosis of one of their number. The play deals with friendship, faith and relationships and has plenty of laughs within the pathos. The main problem with it is that the characters are too sketchy, not multi-dimensional, which affects how much the audience can feel for them. 

But a good evening's viewing nonetheless and I always enjoy supporting this theatre.

[tmesis]

I too love the Orange Tree but this was quite disappointing.

The cast were talented but I did find them four of the most annoying characters ever conceived by a playwright and frankly I couldn't give a toss about any of them.

[pledge]

Agreed. A "central" character (the one we're supposed to care about) so underwritten as to be practically invisible, and her three intensely annoying and cliched friends. (Including a promiscuous gay man who wears flamboyant shirts and expresses himself by singing Judy Garland songs - when was this written, 1975??? and a one-note angry drunk.) Very little actual drama, mostly just Jolly Cast Narration straight out of TIE (lazy lazy lazy) and lots of tickling one another and pretending to laugh uproariously at ancient Dad jokes to show that it's Joyous and Life Enhancing. A couple of moments of actual pathos near the end (and one very good joke) but Jeez it's a long haul to get there...